New season, same results. Fortunately for Marco Odermatt, and too bad for Alexis Pinturault. Crowned king of skiing last winter with a resounding victory overall, the Swiss Odermatt showed from the first race of this 2022-2023 World Cup that he had digested his exploits with a big victory in the giant of Sölden (Austria ), this Sunday. Olympic champion in the specialty, he beat his runner-up in Beijing, the Slovenian Zan Kranjec, and the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen.
After the postponement of the women’s races on Saturday due to snow, the ski season was finally able to start on the Rettenbach glacier. In front of 14,500 raucous spectators, Odermatt scored his second consecutive victory in Sölden, continuing his crazy run of nine consecutive World Cup giants on the podium.
Disappointment for Pinturault
A dynamic after which Alexis Pinturault is still running. The former general classification winner in 2021, looking for a rebound after missing last season, started this season with a poor performance. After a correct first run (8th), he collapsed in the second, without major error however, to take 20th place by more than two seconds.
“The result shows me that there is a lot of work. I feel good mentally, it had nothing to do with last season, but there is still a lot of work to do and I am not at all where I want to be, reacted the French skier to The Team. We have to hang up the wagon, and I hope that the time we have left before the next giant (in Val d’Isère, December 10) will allow us to build some things. I have to regain confidence. »
Among the other Frenchmen entered, Thibaut Favrot took 10th place and Victor Muffat-Jeandet 11th. After the cancellation of the Zermatt-Cervinia descents next weekend, the men have an appointment on November 13 in Lech (Austria) for a parallel slalom.